A fatal China Southern Airlines Boeing 737-300 crash has broken an accident-free run of nearly three years by China's rapidly growing air-transport industry. The aircraft (B-2925), from China Southern's Shenzhen branch, was on flight from Chongqing to Shenzhen International Airport near Hong Kong, on 8 May, when, because of stormy weather, it was diverted to nearby Huanglian. It crashed and broke up on landing at 21.10 local time.
Early reports from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) put the fatalities at 35, including two crew. There were nine crew and 74 passengers on board the 1994-built aircraft.
This is the first fatal airline accident in China since 6 June, 1995, when a China Northwest Tupolev Tu-154M crashed, killing 160 people near Xian. There had been four fatal accidents the previous year, and the Tupolev crash was one of two in 1994. After that the CAAC slammed the brakes on the commercial air-transport industry's extraordinary expansion rate which had peaked at nearly 25% in 1994, so that infrastructure development and professional training could catch up with growth.
Source: Flight International
